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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

(Yes, the 2 year old is naked. Had the others been organized, not 5 minutes sooner, she would have been seen in pirate costume... but them's the breaks, I guess! And yes, my hubs is "God's gift to women" - hee hee.)

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Some of the CSS girls are sharing their favorite season of the year, and drawing inspiration from this photo to bring you a special project:

I think I spoiled the suprise by posting the photo above *wink.* A Canadian through and through, I love winter. I love the first snow-fall, the silverly, glistening, white banks... the kids sledding and laughing in their gigantic snowsuits... but most of all, I love to stay indoors in the winter, by a crackling fire, with some warm & delicious drink in hand - ha! (ahhh, the magic of the season.)

So, for my project, I am bringing you a winter gift, to be able to "wine & dine" someone special:

A bottle of red wine, a gift card to your favorite restaurant, and a cozy card filled with all the "sweet nothings" you don't always say out loud... hee.

I love a cozy plaid for winter - don't you? I used the new-to-me "create-a-plaid" to create my background. I inked up a warm red, and two tones of grey ink to create the look. I then die-cut a tags #1 shape, and stamped it with the coordinating frame. I also stamped the cookie-tree, and a sentiment (from "cookie bake"). Everything on the tag was white-heat-embossed.

The same steps were taken to create the bottle tag, except that I stamped the snowflake cookie in grey ink instead of the tree.

Thanks for popping by! These other designers all have fun projects to show off:

Monday, October 29, 2012

Here's another card that we created at my most recent Christmas card class. It was inspired by *this card* of Yainea's. She's brilliant, and if you've never stopped by her blog, please take a peek. The cute things she does with lawn fawn stamps are incredible!

I actually have to admit to liking her card better than mine, but it was fun to turn her fall card into a Christmas-themed one.

Friday, October 26, 2012

It's been awhile, but do you remember the monster-carnival invitations I posted? I know you've been waiting with bated breath for me to post the rest of the decorations...

Here's the whole lot - Do you see the cake-stand on the right with the piles of banners? Because, how are you supposed to photograph 10 banners? hee.

I took cues from the invitation to create this fun food-table banner. Each panel was way too large for me to use any existing stripe stamps, so it was me, a black copic, and a ruler to get 'er done. worked perfectly.

All of the food & treat items were given labels (love all of the names that my client came up with - I'm pretty sure that "monster hair" is for some kind of licorice, and not for, say... pasta. but I could be wrong.)

I have a few milk bottles lying around, so I thought I'd show you what the drink labels would look like....

but there are a few more...

These guys are getting slapped on little treat boxes... some of them ended up with black teeth, which is cracking me up. Ahhhh ,the beauty of handmade!

If there were a plate of monster cookies in front of me right now, I'd be chomping down on them like that monster...

Of course, every carnival guest needs their own little baggie of carnival tickets... and fun tags to go with...

Thursday, October 25, 2012

But, the challenge was to create holiday cards, and I have card classes going on in which we're making holiday cards, so....

I chose to be inspired by this color scheme:

(and, when I say "inspired by," I mean that I started out with aqua mist and smokey shadow inks, and a patterned paper that has soft stone stripes in it, but I couldn't find anything in my stash that looks like ocean tides... is that okay?)

I went the non-coloring route with the house from "boards and beams." I stamped it in a dark grey ink onto a piece of white cardstock, and then stamped the snow flurry (from lawn fawn's "let it snow") over-top in a watermark ink. After sprinkling it with white embossing powder, and heat setting it, I rubbed a blue distress ink over the area, making it look like a little snow-globe-in-a-polaroid.

The sentiment, from "home for the holidays," was stamped in grey onto the polaroid frame. I added a little fishtail of silver glimmer paper for holiday sparkle, and some yarn for winter coziness.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Something about packaging up little treats makes me happy. Mostly because they combine my love of paper, with my love of eating treats...

With Halloween right around the corner, the CSS design team is offering up our best ideas for making the holiday "no trick" and "all treat."

I've been watching way too much Food Network tv... so, when I say that I've created a "duo" of halloween treats, keep that in mind *wink*

For my first offering, I've taken snack-sized sandwich bags and filled them with yucky-looking popcorn - perfect for the year's spookiest night. I made a kettle-corn topping for the popcorn, but dyed it green in some spots before baking the whole thing in the oven. The kids refused to try it at first, I had to tell them to close their eyes and take a bite - hee. Its sugary sweetness won them over in the end!

Each baggie has a topper, featuring a dressed-up critter who's yelling: "a zombie sneezed on my popcorn!" Ew. But for Halloween - so awesome.

I used the new comic book background, in orange, but masked out a spot to stamp the critter-in-costume (using the new "little critter dress up" set.) Some spooky black shading completed this first treat option.

For my second treat option.... brown paper bags! I love these! I die-cut the "build-a-critter" owl shape twice for each treat...er.... pouch. Then, mustaches, fangs, and mummy wraps for all! I die-cut all of the fashion accessories (from the new "build a critter dress up dies") and glued them on, along with a set of large, beady, googly eyes.

I sewed around the edge of the treat....er.... pouch, and, before sewing it up completely, stuffed it with treats.

The kid who gets the treat will have to do this:

Yup, ripped right into my mummy (thank God I spelled that mummy and not mommy...) and found some yummy tootsie rolls and halloween lollipops.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

We have quite the Christmas-themed day planned. If it doesn't rain (fingers crossed, because the prognosis doesn't look good), the kids are getting gussied up for Christmas card pictures with our favorite photographer, (complete with mugs full of whipped cream and small trees for sale - so cute, right?) and I am off to teach my first Christmas card class of the season. As Maia threw her 112th tantrum yesterday, I turned to my husband, smiled oh-so-serenely, and said: "I'm getting out of here tomorrow afternoon." (The terrible twos are here, and they are LOUD, people. They've even started spitting on me. This mama needs a grown-up-girl break.)

Christmas gets c-o-l-d over here... and lasts for months... and months... but winter is still my favorite. Why on earth? (that's what you're thinking, right?) Because it's full of lit fireplaces, and cozy sweaters, hot chocolates, and Christmas. That's why. And nothing says cozy and warm like layers and knit patterns.

I stamped some silver (well, grey) bells, and layered them onto my focal point mat with a poinsettia and a floppy red bow. I adhered them onto a die-cut shape already stamped with boughs. Then, the knit pattern. I stamped it in a festive red, and added the sentiment from Precious Remembrance:

I love this sentiment - the mix of fonts and handwritten appeal work so well here. My favorite part is the little heart on the "J". It doesn't get any cozier than that.

Friday, October 19, 2012

I'm going to be doing that thing where I start posting lots of Christmas cards... something came over me this past week... I was preparing for my first Christmas card class of the season!

If you've been around the blog for awhile, you may know that I teach classes in the months leading up to Christmas - it's a group of girls, sitting around a table and crafty-chatting, while they ooh and aah over the cards we're making together. So sweet, these ladies... What they don't realize is that I'd probably pay them for the opportunity to have a night out *wink*

Monday, October 15, 2012

***This is my second post for the day! If you're looking for my CSS well preserved post, scroll down***

Whew! Are you getting sick of me yet? I may just be getting tired of myself, hee hee. A few more days of posts and I promise to give you all a break...

The new lawnscaping assignment challenged all of us on the design team! And now we're asking you to try out a new-to-you technique.

I found a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers for creating a copic-ink-refill background and decided I liked the watery effect that it gave enough to break out my "critters in the sea" set.

The technique is simple: on a sheet of glossy photo-paper, I squirted a few drops of copic re-inkers. I opted for 2 different blues, and a light beige (which I only dropped in a few places, to simulated the light hitting the water.) As soon as the ink hit the glossy paper, it begins to spread. I continued to add drops until I was satisfied with the coverage. Then, the fun part: using hand sanitizer to keep the ink away from certain spots. I filled a shallow cup with some hand-sanituzer, and used a toilet paper roll and a napkin to push the ink away. I wanted my ink to bleed quite a bit and not show any obvious rings, so I dabbed the napkin over the entire area in the end.

Once dry, I hand-cut the waves and sponged around the watery edges with a darker blue ink. I added some critters, and a fun speech bubble to round out the card.

Hope you join us this week - I can't wait to see what other techniques pop up in our gallery! The challenge is being sponsored by lawn fawn - so try your hand for a chance to win!